The Official WWE / NXT Discussion Thread *May Contain Spoilers*

[Dawn]

Well, that's probably the end of The Vaudevillains push; wouldn't be surprised if they sent them back to developmental. Either way, they're probably not going to last much longer in WWE.

 

Nonsense. These things can happen at any time in the sport, it's not their fault. They have to be prepared for it. As for Enzo, I hope he has a quick recovery...

[Russelrules44]

Nonsense. These things can happen at any time in the sport, it's not their fault. They have to be prepared for it. As for Enzo, I hope he has a quick recovery...

 

I know, I was being sarcastic.

 

But seriously, I hope Enzo gets better.

[Tyler Gadzinski]

I doubt anything will happen to the Vaudevillians or Simon Gotch over this.. Enzo took his own bump, and it was a freak accident which can happen on ANY move. Gotch threw Enzo towards the ropes, that was it.

 

It was Enzo's first PPV appearance so I don't know if he was extremely excited and wasn't being as safe as he could've, or if they were just too close to the ropes for that spot. Sad, sad thing to happen, but it does happen, on the easiest of moves too.

[LigerLiger]

That Miz/Cesaro ending was stupid as hell,Miz pulled a Charlotte and started noselling the submission.Also,wassup with Cesaro starting the Swing and just stopping it to lock the Crossface?

[lr10540]

That Miz/Cesaro ending was stupid as hell,Miz pulled a Charlotte and started noselling the submission.Also,wassup with Cesaro starting the Swing and just stopping it to lock the Crossface?

 

From how many times he spun him around, he was probably unable to stand up straight to put the sharpshooter on. I'm just guessing though. It looked like he had a little bit of trouble getting his arm down for the crossface.

[lr10540]

I absolutely hated that finish. Booooo.

 

Let's see what ole Vinnie Mac has to say!

[RKOwnage]

Well there's your Survivor Series main event.

[packerman120]

One hell of a match to end the show.

[Dawn]

One hell of a match with a terrible finish. And no, it's not because ''DERP, Roman won''.

[Crychon]

Very overbooked main event, but it was overbooked very well.

 

Pretty good show, with the exception of Enzo getting hurt. Get well soon, 'zo!

[jwt13]

I really don't get the Roman hate. He has played the tweener role great since Mania, and has great matches. The hate is just a circle jerk at this point.

[RKOwnage]

One hell of a match with a terrible finish. And no, it's not because ''DERP, Roman won''.

 

I agree. I like Roman, and I'm not big on AJ, but him taking 3-4 finishers and kicking out, and AJ getting one Spear and being dead is just dumb. Bad finish to a great match. They even had me thinking AJ might win.

[GhostDogg]

I have a question..

 

How is it that Roman can go over so many people who is better than him..(Bryan, AJ, Trips, etc) but yet Ambrose has to get jobbed out to everyone....and their mother...

 

I dont hate Reigns. I hate his character and how they are force feeding him down our throats. But I will say this... WWE is proving to me that the guy with the title is not really the BEST Wrestler on the roster....

[K-Nection]

First the bad then the good.....

 

Enzo hurting himself was terrible and I hope he gets well soon.....That finish on a damn fine main event

 

The good...

 

The rest of the card! I could barely find fault with this card! I can see how they will probably have a fatal 4 way match for the IC title and I'm not mad at that. Those 4 guys got lumped together pretty well and that match will most likely steal the show.

 

That main event was booked perfectly except the whole Roman winning clean....I was really banking on Balor coming out their and screwing AJ and making an AJ vs. Balor Club feud. They need to cut this tweener crap with Roman and go ahead and fully turn the guy.

[Minarin]

WWE have announced Enzo Amore has been discharged from hospital despite having a concussion.

[Ben_Ditch05]

They need to cut this tweener crap with Roman and go ahead and fully turn the guy.

 

I completely disagree. I think he's the best he has ever been as a tweener and it works for him. Ever since the Shield broke up I always though that Roman needed to be a tweener who didn't care about anyone but himself and was after only 1 thing. The WWE Title. He wouldn't cheat to win any matches, it just wouldn't matter to him if he had to beat a good guy or a bad guy, as long as it ended up with him being The Guy. And I feel that's the way WWE needs to play it. He doesn't act as a heel, just a cocky face who doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself, which is why I really hope he gets away from the Uso's, even though they make sense to be here at this point. Anyways, I think WWE should ride out this Tweener run as long as they can. And I think they can run it quite a ways. My favorite part of this was when AJ, Jericho, KO and Zayn all came out wanting to number 1 contender. And Reigns just went with it, he was all for it. I like that Reigns. Because he just wants to fight and prove that he's the best, that he's the guy. And that's the way it should be.

[Warhawk8492]

Was a decent PPV until the ending ruined it.

[K-Nection]

I completely disagree. I think he's the best he has ever been as a tweener and it works for him. Ever since the Shield broke up I always though that Roman needed to be a tweener who didn't care about anyone but himself and was after only 1 thing. The WWE Title. He wouldn't cheat to win any matches, it just wouldn't matter to him if he had to beat a good guy or a bad guy, as long as it ended up with him being The Guy. And I feel that's the way WWE needs to play it. He doesn't act as a heel, just a cocky face who doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself, which is why I really hope he gets away from the Uso's, even though they make sense to be here at this point. Anyways, I think WWE should ride out this Tweener run as long as they can. And I think they can run it quite a ways. My favorite part of this was when AJ, Jericho, KO and Zayn all came out wanting to number 1 contender. And Reigns just went with it, he was all for it. I like that Reigns. Because he just wants to fight and prove that he's the best, that he's the guy. And that's the way it should be.

 

Did you hear that crowd though? The man has borderline X-Pac heat... I say embrace the hate and let the fans get it out of their system.

 

Edit: I really have to start reading what I type. Even I'm appalled at some of the things that leave my keyboard.

[Warhawk8492]

Did you hear that crowd though? The man has borderline X-Pac heat... I say embrace the hate and let the fans get it out of their system.

 

Edit: I really have to start reading what I type. Even I'm appalled at some of the things that leave my keyboard.

 

WWE needs to just give up on Roman Reigns and depush him.

[smurphy1014]

I agree. I like Roman, and I'm not big on AJ, but him taking 3-4 finishers and kicking out, and AJ getting one Spear and being dead is just dumb. Bad finish to a great match. They even had me thinking AJ might win.

 

Exactly what I thought afterwards. I get the size difference between the two but still.

[jwt13]

Did you hear that crowd though? The man has borderline X-Pac heat... I say embrace the hate and let the fans get it out of their system.

 

Edit: I really have to start reading what I type. Even I'm appalled at some of the things that leave my keyboard.

 

I don't think you know what X-Pac heat means. If you watch X-Pac around 00 maybe later you would understand what the term means.

 

Pac was getting little reaction at all and what he got was people telling him to just go away. What Roman gets is different, he gets a big reaction. Is it the face reaction WWE wanted no, but it's legit heel heat and he has started to play off of that very good since Mania.

[Warhawk8492]

I honestly fear somewhat for guys like Bobby Roode and Eric Young in WWE. They should not be jobbing to Roman Reigns. AJ Styles should have won. Instead he gets buried by a talentless piece of crap. AJ Styles should have refused to job to Reigns. Maybe no sell his offense.

[K-Nection]

I don't think you know what X-Pac heat means. If you watch X-Pac around 00 maybe later you would understand what the term means.

 

Pac was getting little reaction at all and what he got was people telling him to just go away. What Roman gets is different, he gets a big reaction. Is it the face reaction WWE wanted no, but it's legit heel heat and he has started to play off of that very good since Mania.

 

I grew up in the era and I'm well aware of what X-Pac heat is....When I see this man on my TV screen that makes me groan. Can he still have good matches...yes. Am I tired of this guy and the man has go away heat with me yes.....he has X-Pac heat turned up to 9000 in my opinion. If they shoved the belt on X-Pac that go away heat would have been turned up to 9000 as well.

[jwt13]

I grew up in the era and I'm well aware of what X-Pac heat is....When I see this man on my TV screen that makes me groan. Can he still have good matches...yes. Am I tired of this guy and the man has go away heat with me yes.....he has X-Pac heat turned up to 9000 in my opinion. If they shoved the belt on X-Pac that go away heat would have been turned up to 9000 as well.

 

We'll have to agree to disagree, Roman is over just not as a face.

[Greylocke]

NXT did what they could with Apollo but at the end of the day, the guy is just one dimensional, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, and say that he can do better with a different character but even then I'm not 100% sure. I remember before Crews had his title shot against Bálor though, he took 3 weeks off, and each week, we got 3 different video packages about Apollo's life and really gave people a reason to like him because he came off as a nice, genuinely friendly guy which made me like him for awhile. As for character development, the best case in recent memory is American Alpha. The development of Gable and Jordan has been phenomenal, from Jordan looking for a partner, but always rejecting Gable's offer. Then finally accepting Gable's offer but never saying the catchphrase, then after a few wins, the two were like brothers. Even in recent memory, their match with The Revival was all about the fact that Gable and Jordan had a shot at the big time and failed, and Takeover: Dallas was their chance to prove that they arent just choke artists.

 

To be honest, Joe vs Bálor bored me towards the end, but their storyline atleast made sense on a week to week basis, unlike the WWE title storyline, where the Authority tried everything to get the title off of Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble, then handed him a Number One Contenders match at Fastlane for absolutely no reason. There was no logic in that, and Joe vs Bálor atleast was a storyline that had little to no plotholes in it, which I've always hated about a lot of WWE storylines. Also, Alexa Bliss has been consistently great in NXT, from the smiling sweetheart to this complete bitch, and the transition was natural after she screwed Enzo & Cass out of the titles. Even a few months ago, her promo and match with Bayley really proved that Alexa will be a star in both NXT and WWE, so long as she can avoid any backstage politics that is. Even Bayley has been given some character development after she passed out instead of tapping to Asuka, the sound of the arena in Dallas was unforgettable, they were genuinely sad that Bayley had lost, and it was against Asuka, a woman who herself has been one of the best things about NXT (I can only imagine what it wouldve been like if Eva beat her instead, most likely riots). Now we get to see Bayley claw her way back up, which she is best at

 

I've not really been impressed by Aries at all in NXT, but I've been able to get behind Bálor, although he is in need of a few tweaks to his character before he becomes boring, maybe a heel turn is in order. But I think, when you look at what NXT have with American Alpha, Asuka, Bayley, Alexa Bliss, Nakamura, etc. The future is bright for NXT, and specifically the womens division.

 

With regards to Apollo.....I used to feel the same about Tyson Kidd, but NXT showed that good writing can work around any wrestler's lack of range....maybe not enough to really make him a star, but it can certainly give him his own niche as a character. It just looked like there isn't enough effort put in here.

 

Jordan and Gable are definitely my biggest reason to still watch NXT these days, especially the latter. Gable is possibly the only "mat technician" that makes me like his in-ring style. I'm personally not a big fan of the technical style, but boy, Gable makes it fun. He entertains me in the ring in a way that even Kurt Angle and Daniel Bryan couldn't (although I'm a big fan of both due to their chararcters). And the partnership storyline with Jordan was certainly solid while it was going, although now that's been resolved, they seem to be going back to the same old "how hard they've worked to get here" stuff in all their interviews, which is just so much like what Balor and Co are doing.

 

And with Enzo and Cass gone (man, I just saw their match with J&G, and it'll be some time before we see another match with the same level of reaction in NXT), they're going to be sorely needing opponents with interesting characters. Dash and Dawson are good in the ring, and they make perfect foils for those with flashier characters, but on their own they just don't spark that much interest in me. Blake and Murphy don't seem to have much of an identity without Alexa. I didn't even realize how much Enzo and Cass meant to the tag division on NXT until they're gone. Right now they certainly have the best possible team on top of the division, but they need to work more on the brickworks below, because Enzo and Cass just took a big chunk off with them.

 

The Women's Division is eerily similar. They have the best on top of the ladder, but the rest of it is shaky. Bayley and Asuka are the only ones to guarantee a good reaction no matter who they are facing (in fact Asuka may get better reaction destroying faceless jobbers). This is what happens when you export 3/4 of your most over workers in the division and not having enough talent to replace them. Carmella, Alexa and Jax have some overness, but not enough to get people to care if they're not wrestling more over people (Carmella's match with Aliyah....you can hear a pin drop in that match. Whereas Bayley can still get the crowd to care when working with Liv Morgan).

 

Also, I like what Asuka is supposed to be....but they don't always pull it off right. Part of the reason is that she needs opponents to sell her offense like death every time, and besides Bayley not many of them do a great job of that (don't even get me started on Eva). The angles don't always come off well either. Remember her feud with Dana where Regal showed her and Emma some clip of Asuka and they looked scared to death? That was well done, I thought, it had me wondering what exactly they saw: Asuke bloodying and mutilating some opponent? Snapping off someone's arm? Choking someone out? Then at the end of the show we see the contents of the clip......Asuka hitting a sand-bag???? Hardly the most intimidating thing in the world. They're better off not showing that clip at all and leaving it to the audience's imagination.

 

Also, one of the great things about having Bayley as champion was that her character allows almost anyone to step up as a contender and still look like a legit threat (even Eva) while at the same she herself can still believably face up to monster like Jax and Asuka and possibly still come out on top (in fact I was pleasantly surprised that they actually had her trade holds competitively against Asuka and hold her own instead of just getting beat down for most of the match like the typical generic underdog babyface at Takeover Dallas). The thing about having Asuka on top is that you need to have her dominate her opponent's 95% of the time to maintain her killer mystique (Nia, too), which makes it hard to build up another legitimate contender at the same time. That's probably one of the reasons they still haven't promoted Bayley yet. They absolutely need her around at the moment to help build up more stars.